Haven't been sick at all since taking Zinc

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TL;DR Since I started on zinc picolinate I've not caught any viral infection, and it's the longest time I've not had one (at least in recent years). My skin also cleared up very nicely after taking zinc, within days I noticed a huge difference. Nothing worked before to stop the acne. Other little issues I was having also completely went away.

I already mentioned my issues with magnesium and zinc in my blog posts, but I just want to share it here in case someone comes across it.

When I first started doing CR, it felt like I was almost completely immune to any bugs going around. Sometimes I would go years without catching a cold or the flu, and then somewhere along the line things changed.

In the last few years, I noticed I was getting sick just like everyone else. Every year, I'd develop a cold or what felt like the flu. They also seemed to be a lot worse than what I remembered having before.

So at some point, I started developing acne (I really became a teenager again), athletes foot, and other skin issues. I think I also experienced some diffuse hair loss, but my hair is thick anyway, and therefore took me a long time to notice. During that winter I developed 3 colds, and then a burst eardrum. Although, despite being a large perforation and saying I needed an operation, it healed very fast, which was quite unusual apparently.

Eventually, I figured that I might be deficient in zinc. Normally I wouldn't be so complacent and track my nutrient intake or I'd just take half a multi in previous years and do just fine. However, I know that even tracking and getting enough through diet doesn't always guarantee there won't be an issue... as my experience with magnesium a long time ago had shown me.

So I started taking Zinc. Within days of taking 100 mg zinc picolinate, my skin and acne started to heal. I continued taking this amount for probably one or two months if I remember correctly, before lowering the dose to 50 mg per day and then 22 mg sometime after that.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this in case someone else experiences it. I have heard of many raw foodists/vegans having issues with these two minerals and even some people on CR showing signs of mild zinc deficiency.

I'm a lot more careful again now about ensuring I get what my body needs by more closely tracking nutrient intake, staying on top of supplementing where necessary. I couldn't understand that despite my super healthy lifestyle I was having these issues, especially with acne! Something that my diet had completely stopped many years ago. And with regards to getting sick a lot, I put that down to just having 7 nieces and nephews always running around here and bringing germs back lol.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Matt

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The complicated thing about zinc supplements is the dosage. When you get zinc from food, cronometer or whatever can be a guide. Getting too much zinc is definitely not good - and it's easier to take too much with supplements. What is tricky with zinc supplements is that the forms vary wildly as far as absorbtion - the form you take, picolinate can be like 5 times more available compared to other forms of zinc. At which point, you really have to wonder how much you are taking and if it's over the daily max - 15mg from picolinate may not be the same as 15mg from citrate, and you don't know how the supp manufacturer calculated the 15mg, you could be absorbing or not absorbing up to one fifth or 5 times as much. It's a big gamble. Easy to over/under dose. Which is why I suppose people generally try to get it from food (which is not easy, I know - especially for vegeterians/vegans).

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As I understood, zinc can bind cadmium, which is an advantage to those consuming lots of cacao (which by the way is rich in zinc itself). However, zinc may be polluted by cadmium so it should be from a reliable manufacturer. I'm taking zinc supplements since read Michael's reccomandations. Picolinate from Solgar. Cannot say it boosted my immune system since I changed quite a few things. It might have contributed though, together with CE, exercise, a vegan diet rich in xenohormetics, regular sleep. This year I was just unable to have even a tiny health issue. Hope it goes on like that!

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I just checked, Solgar's zinc picolinate which I'm taking daily is 11 mg zinc per pill (110% RDA). I already take 100%+ zinc from dietary sources. Zinc seems to bind copper as well, which is a good thing since my diet is very copper rich (500% RDA). Cadmium+copper binding=two birds with a stone.

The tolerable UL for zinc, adult males seems to be 40 mg/day. The source of zinc is not specified

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MMmmm..., after re-reading MR's suggestions on zinc I'm definitely going to stick to my daily pill, most probably going to increase it since there are more competing minerals such as copper (500% RDA in my case) and cadmium.

One brand I'm buying supplements from in Europe (low prices, reasonable quality) is the German Vitamaze, 10 € for a one-year stock (50 zn mg per tablet, zinc gluconate). Wonder if anyone else buys this brand.

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One maybe favourable issue is that zinc is at the top of the Irving-Williams series together with copper. The bad news of course is that copper tends to be a stronger competitor than zinc, with high amounts available in vegan diets as discussed. I wonder where would cadmium sit in the Irving-Williams series.

But the issue seems not to be so straightforward since enzymes metallazion is somewhat assisted by cells. I'm goign to stop here otherwise this working afternoon will be compromised!!

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You can also get zinc picolinate for pretty cheap. Hard to find one with 100% RDA though, most are much higher. Don't know how easy it would be to split these in half for example, or if it would be fine to take every other day:

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Years ago I posted my experience with zinc supplementation. once i broke a toe and it just would not heal for several months! I took zinc and within a week it was much better. a few years later I had an infection in my finger. it throbbed. I went to a doc and he prescribed a powerful antibiotic which eliminated it, but after discontinuing the anti biotic after 5 days as prescribed it came back with a vengeance. this time, once again, I took zinc 15 mg. in a few days it was gone. recently i had an arm injury from using a sledge hammer. it throbbed and hurt and would not go away. again I tried taking zinc and again it went away in a few days. I dont know if these examples are placebo effects or not. all I can say is THAT I HAVE EXPERIMENTED MY WHOLE LIFE WITH SUPPLEMNTS AND 99% OF THE TIME THEY ARE TOTALLY USELESS AFAIK. But zinc seems to have this profound healing effect. I always end up not taking it in the long run because I dont want to overdo it because Cron o meter says I get about 11 grams from my diet which should be sufficient; however, I eat a very vegan, high fibre diet with lots of green tea so maybe I dont absorb enough????

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MR mentioned it before on the old lists as well... He may have had a mild zinc deficiency. And I've also come across a lot of raw food, vegan, who developed issues with zinc.

CRON-O-METER always said I had enough magnesium, but I still had problems without supplementing. Sometimes my diet was low in zinc, but I never thought it was enough to cause an issue because it definitely wasn't consistent.

I don't think it's a fluke that I'm so much more resistant to infections now. But yeah, I heal much faster now too.

A couple videos from Megan that I found. She's a long-term raw foodist